Bakes Box

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

What better way to welcome back the Great British Bake Off (which starts tonight- yay!) than to tell you about a baking subscription box suitable for amateur bakers or Mary Berry herself! Bakes Box is a fairly new subscription box, which provides you with all of the dry ingredients needed to create some showstoppers worthy of appearing on GBBO themselves! I was lucky enough to win the two boxes I have had the pleasure of creating via their instagram and twitter competitions. So definitely check out their social media accounts as they always have competitions running! The boxes are £11.50 a month, however you can purchase a 3-month, 6-month or yearly subscriptions, which keeps the costs down. Bakes Box have also recently launched their Junior Box, which is just £7.50 a month and is perfect for any little'ns who enjoy baking. The Junior Bakes Box comes with all the dry ingredients needed to make that months bake but also a chefs hat, puzzles and jokes to keep them entertained whilst you do the clearing up! You can also purchase a one off box as a gift for any budding bakers instead of a subscription if need be, which takes out all of the stress of remembering to cancel! There is also a family bundle available for £16.99 a month, which includes an original Bakes box and a Junior Box, which saves you from subscribing to both!

The first box I received was in collaboration with the Meringue Girls and it was their Eton Mess Layer Cake. The outer box was small enough to fit through your letterbox, which means you don't have to stay in all day and wait for it! The box contained all of the ingredients needed to make the cake, including the piping bags etc, apart from the fresh ingredients like butter, eggs and cream. This looked like a very impressive cake by the pictures included in the recipe card and at first I was very apprehensive because I'd never made meringues before, I didn't even own an electric whisk! So off I popped to my local Currys to purchase a much needed electric whisk and began baking. The recipe took a lot longer than expected, but that was probably more to do with the fact that i'd never baked something as difficult before. It was a real challenge, but it really ignited my passion for baking and I enjoyed baking it so much more than my usual Victoria Sponge or Coffee Cakes!

The meringue kisses were definitely the most difficult part of the cake, but i'm pretty chuffed with how they turned out! They were lovely and chewy in the middle and crispy on the outside- not bad for a first attempt! There were lots of components to the cake, like the merginues kisses, the sponge, raspberry cream filling, and the raspberry coulis, so in total it did take about 3 hours, but the finished product was well worth the time spent creating it, and it tasted delicious! I got so many compliments from family members who tried the cake and i'll definitely make it again in the future when I need to impress. The finished product was huge and I managed to get about 12 servings from the cake, so perfect for when you're entertaining. I really liked the pipette that was included within the kit which was filled with the remaining coulis allowing guests to add more to their portions if need be.

The next box I received was in collaboration with Georgias Cakes, who I have been following on instagram for a while. Georgia creates the most amazing cakes piled high with lollies, macaroons and chocolate! The box contained all of the ingredients to make chocolate and pistachio macaroons and raspberry macaroons. I have never made macaroons before, so this box really tested my baking skills to the max and unfortunately I couldn't quite pull them off! This box contained all of the dry ingredients needed to make the macaroons, as well as several piping bags and a piping guide. I think I piped the macaroons too closely together or the mixture was too running when I started piping because as soon as I put them in the oven they all merged into one (hence the lack of after photo!). It was such a shame that the macaroons didn't turn out quite right because everyone elses looked amazing on their instagram account! But oh well, i'll just have to try them again in the future now that I have the recipe!

What I like the most about Bakes Box is that it makes you try things you'd never think of trying to bake because they might seem to advanced! I would never have attempted an eton mess layer cake or macaroons before because looking at the recipe I'd think it was too difficult and wouldn't bother, but I'm so glad its got me out of my baking comfort zone and challenged me further! All of the ingredients come already weighed out, which is perfect for the lazy baker like me! So even though you might think that spending £11.50 to make a cake is a lot of money... the enjoyment you get from baking something you'd never have baked before and seeing other peoples creations on social media makes it all worth while! Also, it means that you don't have to spend lots of money buying specialised ingredients, like the pistachio paste featured in the macaroon box, never to use again! I'd definitely recommend subscribing to Bakes Box if you love baking as their boxes are getting better and better each month!